Mobile technology is growing beyond being the latest trend or convenience and is putting down roots as an everyday necessity for modern American society. According to the Pew Research Center’s November 2016 survey, 77% of Americans now own smartphones, 69% are on social media, and 51% own tablet computers. It’s now possible to browse online, make purchases, and complete any number of tasks from smartphones. It’s possible to initiate and receive both traditional and video calls from computers. Tablets with touchscreens can be used like clipboards, sketchbooks, and just about any other drawing and writing surfaces imaginable. Younger generations are especially adept at transitioning fluidly between devices throughout the day. You can look at such transitioning as emblematic of diminishing attention spans and a potentially distracted workforce… or you can look at each mobile device as a fresh opportunity to communicate with your employees and keep them engaged when they’re away from their desks.

What are the best ways to take advantage of these fresh opportunities? Well, your communications platforms will need to be mobile friendly and these days that means more than just making sure everything looks good on screens of varying dimensions. One of the biggest challenges to mobile friendliness is distribution. 94% of respondents in a recent report still request email as their primary means of contact but other communications methods—particularly instant messaging, texting, and chatting—are growing in popularity. Depending on the intended audience for your message, you may want a platform that allows certain communications to be shared on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. For example, are you planning to share stories of exceptional customer service in an employee newsletter? That’s exactly the kind of recognition employees (and your marketing, sales or public relations departments) might want to share with family and friends on social media. On the other hand, when it comes to more sensitive communications, you might want a platform that’s password protected. For communications like open enrollment, you might be looking to blend traditional print messaging with digital components, something easily accomplished through QR codes. Distribution through all these platforms and more are available when you use mobile-friendly digital postcards for employee communications.

Just as mobile technology marches forward while branching out, the modern workforce is becoming increasingly diverse. That diversity can lead to tailoring your employee communications messaging for more specific audiences to keep the material relevant and engaging for the employees of a given department or region. The diversity of mobile technology makes that kind of customization and distribution easier to manage and it makes gauging the response to such specialization easier still. Digital postcards are easily edited to create consistent yet specialized employee communications messaging based on department or worksite location and provide detailed reporting on employee response and engagement. That feedback will help your HR team devise increasingly effective employee communications strategies. In some ways, mobile technology and the multitude of distribution and viewing options it allows are a logical extension of our diverse society.